Uncontained
by BirdHummingAlong
Summary: A.U Kagome knew she was a wanted girl. Her mother of course wanted her, so did her friends, and even some of the boys at school. She just never imagined she'd end up being wanted by outlaws, DEAD or ALIVE! When Inuyasha is hired to kidnap her, she falls into the role of a wanted girl who has yet to discover the untapped power within her.
1. 1 Eating Chocolate

Disclaimer: The characters in this fanfic belong to Rumiko Takahashi, but all the candy in the store is mine! And I'm _not_ sharing.

A/N: And another thing!...please enjoy the story 😊

O.O

Kagome was gazing dreamily out a large, shiny, window panes at the blank gray sky that blended into the side walk when something caught her eye.

Some caramels she had been packing into a bag for an order were glistening invitingly at her. She shrugged, who was she to deny them the housing of her stomach. No customers, no harm in a snack. _Oh ho ho, for me? Don't mind if I do._ She threw one in her mouth.

"Kagome, did I just see you eat a caramel?" Her manager had opened the backroom door and was sticking his head out to the side from it.

"No!" Kagome replied automatically, then remembered that she didn't like to lie "Ah. Yeeeees." She amended with a sheepish smile.

"Well stop it!"

"Okay, if I must." She sighed dramatically and he shut the door with a huff. She snorted, _totally worth it._

The glass door glimmered with movement and a happy looking woman whose belly said she had a very close relationship with candy walked in. She was quickly followed by a young man with dark shades, a red cap, and long black hair in a ponytail that swished saucily as he walked.

She would have thought he was a girl if it weren't for his muscular build and masculine cut clothing. It was rare to get attractive customers that were single so she didn't even dream of flirting with him. Instead she wondered what kind of girlfriend he had, probably pretty…and nice since he was buying her chocolates.

Kagome stopped her musings when the woman stopped and looked around with wide eyes. "Oh, my, I've never seen it so empty in here!" She then changed her directory towards Kagome, or really the giant candy counter Kagome was standing behind.

"Yeah we heard you were coming so we cleared the store." She joked wryly. "Here, I've got some samples for you guys." She got two samples ready in her hand.

Predictably the woman laughed and practically leapt gleefully at her sample. The young man didn't though, instead he ignored her and went to browse the store.

 _Fine, no free chocolate for you Mr.I-have-things-to-do-people-to-buy-chocolates-for-and-no-time-for-commoncurtosy._

Kagome gave the nice woman his sample as well and carried on with her.

Then the rush came. One after another, often two or three at a time, the customers started moseying on in, too many for Kagome to keep a line from forming. More employees clocked in and danced behind the candy counter to keep up with customer demands. Soon the room was filled with the eager bustle of people who loved their candy and wanted it _now_.

Kagome couldn't complain though, she only worked at Chewie's Chocolates, once or twice a week for some spending money. And who was she to begrudge people their sweets, she was addicted herself.

Speaking of, a dark chocolate nugget she had been packing into a box had unluckily come into contact with her finger. It would be such a shame to just throw it away after replacing it with an uncontaminated one….

Her customer, a blond with pretty blue eyes that were glued to her phone, wasn't going to be noticing anything anytime soon. Kagome snuck a bite of the treat…so it wouldn't go to waste.

"I saw that!" she heard a perky voice singsong. Kagome swallowed quickly, too quickly. She coughed discretely into her elbow.

"Ayumi!" She managed, immediately recognizing the voice. She looked up and saw that one of her best friends was standing next to her oblivious customer. How she'd managed to bypass the huge line…well, it was a feat she was sure only her friend could manage without enraging the population of chocolate lovers.

"Hey there Kagome!"

" Ayumi, I thought we banned you from the store! On your left Kagome." Kagome's manager Hitaro said fondly. Jumping in as he grabbed some chocolate almonds near Kagome's elbow for another customer, never passing up the opportunity to flirt with a cute girl, no matter how unsuitable the age. Kagome rolled her eyes.

"I snuck back in, don't tell the manager kay?" Ayumi winked shamelessly.

Kagome coughed, this time not discretely. "Gross" and flipped a lid onto her finished box. "I'll be done with this customer in a minute, and come help you."

By the time she'd finished ringing her customer up, Yuka had joined Ayumi.

"I hear you might have some chocolates here…" Yuka remarked with a shrewd glance at the case showing a gleaming display of hundreds of chocolates.

"Really, where'd ya hear that?" Kagome put her elbows on the counter and set her head in her hands.

Yuka flipped her hair. "Oh. A little bird told me…and you guys have a sign."

"Well if the sign says so…" Kagome reasoned with pursed lips. "You know what? We might have that thing you've been talking about called chocolate."

They grinned at each other, and Kagome wanted to laugh as she became aware of the customers starting to look at them like they were crazy.

"So…" Ayumi interrupted, impatient for her sweets. "I'd like to try that one, and that one, and this one. Ooh, that one looks good too, gotta try it."

"Sure sure." Kagome said putting the samples together. "Do you want to _buy_ any candy?" she inquired.

"Nope, that'll do. You're off in thirty right?" She asked, as Kagome's manager helped build a small bag of chocolates for Yuka, who actually wanted to buy some.

"Yup."

"We're going to meet Eri at Cold Things and wait for you there. We want to get shakes!"

"Even though you have all this chocolate?" Kagome asked, looking wide eyed at the pile in her hands, part of which Ayumi was already shoveling into her mouth.

"Yeah, so?" Ayumi's eyes widened as she looked at Kagome with legitimate confusion.

"That's a lot of sugar." Kagome explained.

"Since when have we cared about that?" Ayumi asked as she caught Kagome discreetly throwing a couple of chocolate raisins in her mouth.

"Sinph Whe strumpsh it."

"What?"

Kagome gulped her guilty treat in surprise, she had thought she was being discreet. "I don't know, since we started eating a lot of it? I think maybe it's time I start cutting back," she revealed as she tucked a peanut butter patty she had accidentally touched into her apron. "I think I'm getting addicted."

"Good luck with that!" Yuka snorted and sauntered over from where she had finished with Kagome's boss. She gestured to the wide windows, and the girls turned to regard the now brightly lit outdoors and clear blue sky. "It's sweltering out there. You could fry a chicken on the side walk…or a Hojo." She snickered and Kagome wrinkled her nose, wishing Yuka could go one week without having to mention Kagome's unfortunate ex.

"There isn't enough meat on Hojo to do that." Ayumi quipped, suddenly feeling very loyal to Kagome.

Yuka sighed dreamily, "Nope, just LOTS of muscle."

"What!" Ayumi and Kagome shouted as they turned wide, disbelieving eyes onto the short haired girl. Yuka returned their looks with a devious smile.

"I ran into him when stopping by my brother's gym the other day. He's been working out over the break." Yuka paused and leaned in to whisper and the girls followed the movement, leaning in closer. Kagome unconsciously had leaned so far over the counter her feet no longer touched the ground. "And I'll tell you…those abs and that ass—"

Unfortunately, someone was eavesdropping on them. "Excuse me Kagome." Kagome's feet dropped to the floor as she suddenly righted herself and turned at the tap on her shoulder. Her eyes snapped to her boss's.

"Yes?" she asked, flushed, and a little worried she was about to be faced with two unfortunate outcomes to their conversation. She was either going to be missing out on the juiciest part of the gossip…or was about to get fired.

"Your break is over."

"But I wasn't on a break…" she replied, searching her boss's face and finding a pointed, unamused look on it. "Eeexactly." He drawled.

Kagome gulped quickly enough realizing her error. "Okay, one second." She turned back to her friends who were giggling shamelessly and hissed, "look I don't care what Hojo does or how he looks anymore." she said, lifting her chin. And honestly she couldn't understand their continued obsession with him either…She was like so, so over him.

"Oh?" her friends challenged, exchanging glances.

"That's right, I have far more important things on my mind, like work and…yes, I'm very busy so you two should go, I'll see you soon okay!" She shooed them away.

Kagome listened to their snickering up until they exited before sighing at the things she put up with and signaling the next customer over.

A man with long dark hair and eyes that were even darker. Youngish, but not quite her age, probably twenties walked up. Normally she could asses the friendliness of a customer with a first glance, but the only vibes she was getting were, creeper alert, and not much else. Something about him didn't sit right with her and she wasn't sure why.

Suddenly she remembered the snooty guy from earlier. He had given her a straight up crabby vibe, but otherwise seemed harmless. It was the opposite with this guy, and she pitied whatever girlfriend he was buying for. _Where did that other guy go?_ She found herself wondering _…must have slipped out with the crowed._

"Hello sir," she smiled, "What can I get you?"

He gawked at her. And Kagome vaguely wondered if jaws were supposed to drop that low. "I'm not sure, are you on the menu?" He asked with a lewd grin.

Kagome balked at the suddenly bold flirtation, and on impulse leaned away a bit from the counter. She eyed him suspiciously, not sure if he was trying to be nice, or really was just a creep. There was definitely something off about him. But at least it seemed he was trying to be nice. she could handle him she decided.

"I'm not sure what kind of candy store you think this is sir, but it's not that kind. We sell candy not people." She enlightened him brightly.

"Oh?"

She nodded her head in confirmation. "Sample of our peanut brittle for you today sir?"

"I'll take _anything_ you feed me." he rumbled, raising suggestive brows.

She chose to ignore her urge to gag and instead set the cup of candy on the counter without another word. She'd dealt with weirdos before, but he was definitely her most unsettling one yet.

He took a piece out and immediately took a bite. He moaned and looked at her. She grimaced, suddenly he didn't seem so nice at all anymore.

There was an oiliness about him that made her want to run away when he looked at her. But he was a customer so that wasn't really an option.

"This is so good. I came for the candy, but will stay for those eyes and that smile…" he said.

 _Ew, so creepy_.

She wasn't even smiling anymore. She was having trouble thinking up a way to respond that didn't involve smashing his face in when suddenly a nicely muscled arm came out of now where and shoved the creepy guy away. She then found herself facing a vibrant red clothed, muscled back. "Hey, yeah. That's right I cut the line! Deal with it!"

It was the boy she had seen earlier, the rude one who was now proving to be even ruder then she had first assumed. He had shoved the creepy guy away and was turned away from her, gesturing crudely at the crowd which was openly regarding him with shock, and on some faces anger.

"Seriously, you people take forever! You're picking out chocolates, not the next damned president!" The creepy guy he had shoved had his arms crossed and was watching with a look that could kill small children. Kagome picked her jaw back off the floor when sunglasses guy suddenly turned back to her. She could almost feel his gaze piercing her from behind the dark shades, and his mouth was twisted into a scowl.

"I have been waiting behind these idiots for a goddam hour, and I got here before all of them! All I want is this one little box of lollipops." He held up one of their assorted twelve packs and waved it in her face. "NOW please."

Abruptly Kagome's manager was next to her.

"Kagome, please take this young man to register number three and ring him up. Then clock out."

"Uh, okay, I—"

There was an outraged cry from the creepy guy, "Hey! I'm not going to take this—" But he was interrupted by Kagome's manager.

"I'll be taking care of you now sir, here, more free chocolate!" Her manager grinned widely and pushed Kagome away towards register 3.

Kagome strolled to the register on the other end of the counter feeling rather surreal as she watched her manager shove more candy into the creep's hands. Her new customer had followed her easily and was standing before her with a smirk when she stopped. She watched him for a moment, wondering how to proceed. She couldn't pretend she hadn't found his attitude more than a little outrageous.

"So," she feigned a conversational tone, "why didn't you get in line sooner since, as you said, you were here first and all…"

 _Where do you get off barging over and talking to people like that?_

She knew it was a really bad idea to try and aggravate an obviously temperamental and unstable customer… She had never been very good at letting bad behavior pass without a remark. Her little brother would eagerly testify to that.

Although she was rather relieved she didn't have to deal with the creepy guy anymore, she wasn't sure this guy was a much better option. _Well, at least I don't feel him trying to undress me with his eyes…_

The smirk was swept straight off his face and he mumbled, "It took me a while to pick em out." At her unimpressed look he added defensively, "What? Is that a crime?"

"Uh, no" She responded simply with raised brows and scanned his lollipops "Would you like it gift wrapped?"

"Why the hell would I want that?"

Now Kagome wanted to know what his problem was, anything she said he seemed to be taken as some sort of attack. It was really starting to eat at her, and her grip on professionality was beginning to slip. "Because it's a gift?" she reasoned, sucking in her cheeks.

"Really? For who? A man can't buy himself a box of…" he turned the box to read the description, "chocolate and caramel lollipop yum yum delights?"

He crossed his arms, and she didn't think it was physically possible, but his scowl somehow got deeper. _Keep that up…and you'll get major grumpy old man wrinkles!_ She warned internally.

"Of course you can, it's just, most men your age who come in here have…"

"Have what?"

"Girlfriends." She huffed, hating having to explain herself to this idiot. "Of course none of them had your personality, so this makes _much_ more sense!" she added without thinking and then bit her lip hard.

She had never had such an outburst with a difficult customer, she couldn't believe herself. But she had really just lost a grip. Her mother had always told Kagome that her temper at its greatest strength was her greatest weakness. She prayed her manager didn't hear her and that this guy didn't suddenly flip on her. That would be just what she needed.

But to her surprise neither of those things happened. Instead he just stared at her at her for a moment with an unreadable expression. She blinked back, hoping she didn't look as scared as she suddenly felt when he finally spoke.

"Are we just gonna chat all day or are you going to let me pay so I can get out of this hell whole?" he demanded.

Letting out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding, Kagome looked away from him to her register screen. "Your total is $9.75"

She jumped a little when he slapped down a 10 and grabbed his box. "Keep the change."

"Gee thanks" she called wryly as he stormed out. "Have a nice day." She added after he slammed the door shut behind him.

 _People!_

O.O

When Kagome stepped outside and the sun's rays bounced happily off the sidewalk and…straight into her eyes.

"Gah!"

She dropped her purse as she threw a hand over her eyes and seriously considered turning back. She couldn't believe how hot it had become, she had been so sheltered in the walking fridge that was Chewies Chocolate Shop. She picked up her purse and dashed to the closest shady spot for refuge.

Despite her summer clothes she could already feel sweat dotting her back. _I could really use that milkshake now._

She looked around and found that her refuge was an awning, but most of the shade lined the alleyways. The city pulsed with summer heat and people, who seemed to have no problem walking around in a sauna. Although the majority also had parasols.

Darn, she had forgotten to…own one.

She made a game of dashing from shadowed alleyways, and between people's shadows and awnings as she made her way towards Cold Things.

Now sweating from her fast movements and the heat, she jumped into her last alleyway made it half-way across with a hop and a skip and then froze. Cold Things would be just on the other side of the building but something or rather someone was in her way.

"I was hoping to see you again, I kind of miss the uniform though."

Kagome said nothing as she tried to discern his face in the shadows. She gripped her purse, she definitely didn't like the way his voice sounded.

"I was so sad to see you go before, so sweet, guile-less, and tasty. I just wanted to put you in my pocket and take you home. Maybe now I will."

Kagome gulped and took a step forward, refusing to be intimidated. It was just that sleaze ball creepy guy from the chocolate shop.

He didn't move.

"That's right come to me baby."

"Actually I'd like to get around you, but I don't think I'll mind running you down if you get in my way." She bit out, knowing it was easier said than done. He was actually much bigger than her and his eyes were crazier than she remembered. She looked around for a weapon.

There was a cardboard box, some string, a lamp shade.

 _What could I do with that? Cone of shame_ him _to death?_

With a jolt she realized that she was in a rather helpless, horror movie situation, and yet she couldn't bring herself turn her back on him and run. _What if I'm not fast enough._

"If you're looking for a weapon baby the only one you'll find is right here." She looked back at him to see him crudely whipping his hands in a pointing motion towards his crotch.

"That's not funny!" She screeched as she blushed and felt her insides freeze in fear. "Now get out of my way!" Where was that temperamental crass boy to shove this guy away when she needed him? Panic was starting to burble in her throat, and she was finding it more and more difficult to build up a scream.

He suddenly looked down. "Ah, no that's not what I meant…although..hmm..Urk..Urk!"

She stared at him dumbfounded and mute with fear as he re-swung his arms towards his crotch twice until something glinty fell from his sleeves and into his hands.

Two blades, one for each hand. And suddenly Kagome realized why he had looked so odd to her when she first saw him. He was wearing a thick longsleeved leather jacket even though they were in the middle of summer.

He smiled as he gripped the blades and looked back up at her horrified face.

The smile held no kindness or reassurance in it.

She thought maybe it was time to escape back the way she came when suddenly she heard what sounded like a seemingly large man land from nowhere just a couple of feet behind her.

She was trapped, but adrenaline had fully surged into her bones by now and she was feeling ready to run. She turned her head to see who else she would have to out run and caught a glimpse of a very large shadow but jerked her head away when she heard a clatter in front of her.

The crazy man had dropped one of his weapons and was staring in shock at whatever had magically jumped down, albeit impossibly, from what she presumed was one of the beams hanging between the buildings walls.

Since he looked like he was about to pee his pants, she really didn't want to see what had landed behind her, maybe it wasn't even a man. He pulled back the hand with the knife still in it. He was going to throw it, she had to get out of there! She screamed and made a dash past him and to freedom. In seconds she was panting as she rushed into the coolness of Cold Things, not daring to look back.

"Wow you really wanted that shake!" Ayumi laughed walking over to her.

Kagome's heart was beating so fast she couldn't form a reply, she just looked up at her friend with wide watery eyes.

"Hey, are you okay?"

O.O

A/N: Not much of a cliff hanger…but hey, who likes those anyway!

See ya next chapter!


	2. 2 Drinking Milkshakes

**Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi has the delight of owning these characters. I have the delight of owning a car that is the same age as me, and completely wrecked.**

 **Chapter 2. Drinking Milkshakes**

 **O.O**

The water turned a slightly disturbing shade of purple and pink as Inuyasha waded his way waist deep and it drew the blood off his body. He made sure to give his claws a good careful cleaning first, then dove straight under.

He reveled in the coolness the water provided as it surrounded him. He had spent a good portion of the day scorching up his feet on the city roof tops. This weather was a pain in his ass.

A little while later when he came up for air he relaxed and floated a little while. He had some time on his hands now, so he watched the horizon turn pink and then orange with the sunset. After it had set he hauled himself out onto an outcropping on the bridge he'd been swimming under.

Getting a claw full of silvery white, he sniffed curiously at his damp, tangled masses. Unfortunately the swim had washed all the black dye out, but he was happy to have gotten rid of the blood and stink that had gotten into it when he'd torn that bastard up. Still it was a bit of an inconvenience.

Once his clothes had dried Inuyasha twisted a simple silver ring onto a finger and watched with a frown as his gleaming claws disappeared into the sad little nubs humans called nails. Never mind the hair, he could just pass for some gay fashionista, a a cosplay fanatic, or a blonde foreigner. Whatever it took to get the job done.

 **O.O**

"Chug! Chug! Chug!"

Kagome giggled as she and her friends watched two of the boys at the next couple of tables over chug size gargantuam Cold Things Perfecto Peanut Butter shakes in a face off. Their faces were looking rather blue, but the five bucks to the victor was sure to be worth brain freeze!

Eri threw an arm around Kagome's shoulders bringing her out of her sympathy brain freeze. "You feeling better Kagome?"

Kagome swiped a tear of laughter and nodded. "Much, I still can't believe the policeman didn't find anything but one of the knives. I wonder what happened after I ran off?" _…or if I imagined it all._

Eri didn't seem to want to hypothesize with Kagome, so she just decided to give her shoulders another comforting squeeze. "It doesn't matter, your safe now and you gave them his description so they'll find him!" She removed he arm suddenly and gave Kagome a reproving look that immediately reminded Kagome of her mother. "Just make sure you don't go around in alleyways by yourself again. I almost had a heart attack when Ayumi waved me over and I saw your face!"

"Yeah that was pretty stupid of you Kagome." Yuka added. She had somehow managed to tear her eyes away from jubilant cheering and muscle display in time to add her own reprimand.

Kagome avoided their suddenly accusing gazes and blew bubbles into what was left of her Mucha Mocha shake, _great guys, blame the victim._ "Yeah well it was one thirty in the afternoon, and, and, and. Bad things aren't supposed to happen when the sun is out!"

She was rather thrown off by it really. Tokyo had always been a safe place for Kagome, she'd never feared for, well, anything before. She never thought the stuff that sometimes happened on the news could happen to her.

Well it didn't and it wouldn't, that's what mattered… She knew better than to walk alone in dark alleyways by herself now, so she was safe. At least that's what she kept trying to convince herself and her mother.

"Hey I know what will make you feel better."

Kagome looked up hopefully at Eri. "Puppies?"

Eri seemed stumped by that answer for a moment, battling internally with the truth of it. "Well yes, but no! Shopping!" She recommended, practically bouncing in her seat.

Kagome was intrigued until she remembered the state her funds were in. "I mean, I guess, but we went shopping yesterday. I kind of used up my budget then…" she trailed off when she saw Eri's debate face fall into place.

"You have a point, however, the summer lights festival is in two weeks." Eri paused to make sure Kagome was following long. "We should go shopping for yukatas, hair pieces and obis!"

Kagome gave her a flat look. "That's an awful long shopping list Eri."

Eri didn't even blink, completely taking the rebuff in stride. "It's an important Japanese tradition, Kagome. One that we must honor and uphold with our traditional dress. We must maintain a high quality of style and honor in our garb, or our generation will fall into a degenerate state!" Eri was a bit breathless once she finished, having said most of her speech in one breath.

"Wow," Kagome gave Eri a soft round of applause. " Is that the speech you would like me to give me mother?"

Eri contrived to look demure, "if you think it would help…yes."

Kagome had to give her props for her convincing argument. Of course, Kagome was a bias judge. She _really_ wanted to go shopping too.

"Hmm, o kay, how about next week? I'll have gotten to have tried that and maybe have saved some more money by then." She winked.

"I wanna come too!" Ayumi cried, making Eri, Yuka, and Kagome jump. She had suddenly decided to pay attention since the boys had ended their contest.

"Me too." Yuka added, not one to be left out.

"Okay" Eri said, "everyone comes, how does next Friday sound?"

Kagome frowned when she realized the very festival that inspired their shopping spree would ruin her Friday. "I'll be babysitting my little brother most of Friday." She slouched down in her seat and groaned. "Mom and Grandpa are leaving early that morning to go gather supplies for the festival."

"Are you free next Saturday?" Yuka asked.

Kagome perked up, _of course, another day!_ "Yep!"

Kagome was still kind of preoccupied with the fact that her almost attacker was still on the loose… But the police were supposed to be scouring the city at the moment so…She figured she was probably safe enough-ish.

"Hey do you guys think we should go to Shibuya or OW!" Ayumi threw a hand to her cheek. "What was that? OW, another one? Ick!" Ayumi's hand traveled up to find a wet waded up piece of paper that had just struck her hair.

"What is that?" Eri asked looking at her hand.

"I think, I think it's a spit ball!" Ayumi realized with a shreek. "Ew gross!" She threw it as far away from herself as she probably could. She had a bad arm so, it just landed on Yuka's sleeve.

"Ew! Watch it!" Yuka wiggled and grinded in her seat until it fell off.

Meanwhile Kagome had zoned out their antics and was investigating the crime scene. She examined the landing point of the first spit wad, the left side of Ayumi's wavy haired head, then looked to the opposite table and saw that the boys who had been in a chugging competition were now in the midst of hysterical laughter. She put two and two together and…

"Oi!" Kagome jumped up suddenly, accidentally knocking her drink over. Eri lunged to pick it up for her, wondering if maybe there was a spider on it or something.

Kagome was oblivious to her near spill as justice became more important. "Hey you! You with the weird straw and the bad bleach job, what's your problem?"

"Me?" Said a boy with long blonde hair at the table next to the girls with a hurt look, he was paused in the middle of taking a sip of his shake through a giant squiggle straw. "What did I do?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry, not you." Kagome apologized to the confused boy, immediately realizing her mistake in stereotyping. "Your hair looks great." She added, awkwardly.

"You really think so? You don't think it looks unnatural?"

"I, is it not natural?" Kagome huffed, realizing she was getting side tracked. She threw a pointed finger at the squad of boys at the other table. "I meant them!" When the blond one at that table turned wide eyes on Kagome, she added, "What's your problem?"

The boys weren't laughing anymore. The one with the bad dye job and the most muscles stood up. "What's _your_ problem!"

Meanwhile Kagome's friends were frozen in a state of shock. They knew Kagome had a temper, but they had never seen her this bold before. They were a little scared. Mostly of her, right then, but also for her. The boys were big.

"Hey, I asked you first…OW! Seriously? Another one?" Kagome screeched, wiping a spit wad off her cheek. If they shot her again, so help her, they were not going to see tomorrow. Wow, when had she become so hostile, she wondered if she was suffering from some sort of PTSD.

She saw a flicker of movement and realized it was the brunette boy next to the one with the bad bleach job who had taken the opportunity to shoot a spit wad at her.

"That's it!" She marched over to the table. Someone needed to teach them some manners, and that person, Kagome decided, was herself.

THUMP

When her hand slammed down on their table the boys jumped in their seats. She may have taken a little pride in that. A little.

"I don't care if you think she is cute, or you're too scared to come talk to her. It doesn't give you the excuse to throw spit wads at my friend like a ten-year-old!" She told them, fixing her eyes on each, guilty individual.

"WH-what! I don't think she's cute!" One of them tried to protest when Kagome stopped him in his tracks.

"Oh, don't even try!"

"Kagome, settle down, it's okay!" Kagome heard Eri call from their table, her friends had finally thawed out of their shock and were starting to murmur amongst each other.

"No, it isn't." Kagome straitened, returning her attention to the guilty party. "You need to apologize." She told them.

"Me?" asked the last one to launch a spit ball.

"All of you." she said. "If you don't start treating girls right now, you'll never find one worth having." She warned them sagely.

"Hold up, I didn't actually do anything," a handsome, black-haired boy with glasses at the back of the table said.

"Okay, except for you." Kagome agreed, but continued to glare at the rest of the guilty looking lot.

Suddenly Kagome felt an arm fall around her shoulders. She broke eye contact and looked to her right see that Yuka was beside her. "Hey Kagome, we're ready to head out. Are you?"

Kagome looked to see that on her other side was Ayumi looking bashful and Eri who was red faced and trying to hold back a laugh.

The blond boy scuttled forward eagerly, "Hey, want to introduce us to your friends?" he asked Kagome hopefully.

"No!" She barked at him. Wondering how he had the gall to even ask. She watched him fall back in disappointment, clutching at his chest as though struck through the heart with an arrow. She ignored him and turned to her friends, "Yeah, let's get out of here." And with a hair flip she began walking away, the girls following in her wake.

"But wait! We're sorry!"

"Yeah, really sorry!"

Ayumi stopped suddenly to stick her tongue out at the boys before running to catch up to Kagome, Yuka, and Eri.

"Wow, Kagome, you're so brave! I can't believe you did that!" Kagome couldn't believe it either. "Wasn't the one with glasses really cute though?" Ayumi asked as she threaded her arm cutely with Kagome's, "Like really cute?"

It didn't take a communications degree to figure out what Ayumi was getting at. Kagome stopped in her tracks. "Ayumi, we're not talking to them next time. They had their chance."

Those boys weren't fit to date a toad.

Ayumi pouted, "Aww come on, they apologized...and they're cute."

Kagome shook her head. Sometime she really wondered what went through Ayumi's head. She probably didn't want to know. But really she had already forgiven the twerps. They weren't bad guys she decided, just not well-mannered ones.

"Well, you can. But I won't." She replied bemusedly.

Ayumi unlinked their arms and skipped ahead. "We'll just have to wait and see!" she added loftily.

 **O.O**

Kagome pushed on the old wood of the window above the kitchen sink. With a groan it opened and let the sounds of summer float in on a current of balmy heat.

"I'm going to watch you from here Sota, okay?"

"Okay" he called back from a distance. He was running out to the street to play with some neighborhood kids.

The cicadas were ringing, children were playing in the streets, and no matter how many windows and doors were open there were never enough breezes to stop the sweat from collecting on Kagome's forehead and back.

It was so hot, and Kagome was a hot mess. Well at least her hair was, thanks to the ruthless humidity that came with summer.

Kagome paused in her filling the water pitcher and contemplated dumping it over her head. And then refilling it and dumping it over her whole body.

But it would take her forever to clean the floor after so…she turned the water back on to fill it the rest of the way.

Thankfully her mother had already made lunch for her and her brother before she left, so cleaning and keeping an eye on the place was really all she had to do until they got back that night.

Yawning she looked dreamily out the window to see the children coloring the streets with chalk patterns and drawings. The drawings were nothing spectacular- just a few cats and dogs, some hopscotch, and a few indistinct doodles here and there.

She watched them somewhat wistfully. She remembered playing with chalk, and always getting covered in it somehow. Her brother had started drawing a badly formed cat with chalk when he waved her over to join him. She shook her head and lifted the pitcher and mouthed 'making iced Kool Aid' at him.

He mouthed back 'why?'

No way was she going out into the sun today, she might get…tan, and hotter. Not reasons a young boy might understand.

She looked up pointedly at the sun, then at the sweat beading down her chest, then back at him like he was crazy. His face was still blank so she then panted and fanned herself.

He still didn't seem to get it so she shrugged and mouthed 'because why not?'

He laughed, made some armpit fart motions and then lifted his arms to the side like he was an airplane and ran away in zig zags.

 _Ahhh,_ _the bliss of being a young idiot._

Kagome shook her head, she loved that kid, but what she wouldn't do to be anywhere but there right then. Like out shopping in an airconditioned mall with Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi.

That's right, they were all ecstatically shopping without her right at that moment. And they were probably laughing about it too.

Okay maybe they weren't laughing about it. They were all still going out together on Saturday, But, apparently her friends had decided they couldn't go the extra day without putting some shopping hours in and had gone out to look for hair ornaments together, sans Kagome. Who had been stuck at home with some good ol' honor bound babysitting.

But the girls had sweetly promised her they were leaving the whole yukata shopping for when she was free, "tomorrow, because we totally need your help and fashion expertise girl." Eri had assured her over the phone.

 _Bunch of weaklings. Not one ounce of loyalty in the lot of_ … "Okay, but you owe me some Boba!" Kagome had chirped in a dangerously light tone.

After a moment of tense, worried silence and deliberation Eri agreed, "Deal! I hope you're not too mad…"

She was, but she knew she shouldn't be. She knew it wouldn't be right for her to expect her friends to give up their fun just because she couldn't join them. So Kagome assured Eri she wasn't, hung up the phone and screamed into her pillow in frustration. Because she really did want to go.

Her smothered scream had mildly alarmed her mother that morning who was still on edge after the whole, her baby was almost kidnapped or raped episode in a dark alleyway in the middle of the afternoon just last week.

Kagome felt pretty safe though. Later that night, after the incident, they had found the crazy guy two or three blocks away from the crime scene with gashes on his body and in a state of shock.

They found his wallet which had actually had her name on a scrap of paper in it with the route to Cold Things drawn, and his ID. Which, after they ran it, told them his name was Ricardo, and that he had a history of public aggression, drugs, and nudity.

They said he was probably attacked by a giant dog based on the cuts and scratches he turned up with, but he wouldn't answer any of their questions and they couldn't find the beast.

Although terrified at the realization that it was some crazy, dangerous beast that had jumped down behind her, Kagome was grateful to the animal that must have saved her anyhow. She hoped they didn't find it, when they did, they would probably try to put it to sleep.

Kagome went to the station the next day to see her attacker in a line up. She picked him out and got to leave knowing he wouldn't be coming after her again. She decided she could probably continue going around Tokyo with some semblance of safety. Like, to go shopping.

Speaking of shopping, although still slightly irritated with her friends, Kagome was actually pretty psyched about the free Boba she was getting tomorrow.

Suddenly Kagome's hands felt very cold, "Ah!" _Ice water on my hands!_

Kagome jumped with a yelp, banging her hand on the faucet. The sudden feeling of ice water running over her hand had shocked her.

"Ignuhh!" she moaned indistinctly, as she observed her red hand. It looked like she had accidentally overfilled the pitcher during her mental raging…Now she really did have a mess to clean up off the floor.

Sighing she shut off the faucet and grabbed a hand towel and bent over to sop up the spilled water.

It was then, the one moment she had to look away from the children, that she heard a call for help that sent her heart thumping out of her chest.

"Sota!" She screamed in panic, skittering over the wet towel on the floor. She flung the screen door open and ran with all the fire her limbs would give her and made it in record time to find her little brother being thrown over the shoulder of a strange man. Of whome she could only see from behind as having long white hair spilling down his back and over his shoulder and a red cap on.

Not being able to stop herself in her rage, or halt her momentum, she slammed into the shoulder he had closest to her as hard as she could. His body swung to face her, and he met her with wide golden eyes she was determined to make black as her fist connected with his face.

Immediately he dropped Sota, who she caught quickly and pushed towards the other children. The man looked stunned.

"Run children! Now!" She shouted at them, particularly at a queasy looking Sota. "What is wrong with you go!" Shocked out of their frozen state, the children ran away screaming as Kagome knocked her hand back for another punch. Today she decided she would not run. Did she realize he was probably a heck of a lot stronger then her? Yes. Did she also realize that hand to hand combat with a grown man was futile and she would most definitely lose? No, no she hadn't gotten that far in thinking yet.

She was too preoccupied with adrenaline and the appearance of him regaining his balance. With a curse he rocked forward.

He was big. Suddenly feeling fear again for a moment she hesitated, but then more adrenaline and anger kicked in. "I will call the police asshole, if you don't leave now!" Kagome threatened. She lunged again, convinced that she was about to pulverize his idiotic, child knapping face. But this time her clumsiness kicked in and she twisted her ankle to the side, causing her to lose her balance.

The floor didn't rush up to meet her like she expected, instead she found her wrists were already bound in an excruciatingly strong grip and her body being thrown with inhuman speed over the shoulder of a body bounding to a black SUV. _Huh, real inconspicuous._ She internally remarked before she snapped again with an angry screech and began fighting anew for escape. Kagome kicked, scratched, and fought like a wild animal, but to no avail, as the man threw her into the car.

"Sorry about this kid." Were the last words she heard through her screeches as a cloth was held up to her face. And as the world fell away only then did it occur to Kagome to remember that she _was_ just a sixteen-year-old kid, and that _that's_ was why she—she was being kidnapped.

Also, why in the world didn't she tell Sota to call the police? _Stupid Kagome!_

 **O.O**

 **A/N: So, a bit of a cliff hanger here. If you like where this is going, please review!**


	3. 3 New Car Smell

**A/N: I wonder how Rumiko Takahashi is doing.**

 **Anyone think she's still writing? Or, er, drawing?**

 **Chapter 3 New Car Smell**

 **O.O**

Cobalt blue eyes hovered close over suede fabric with cross-stitch detailing. He inhaled deeply. The upholstery appeared to have that new car smell. But it was a blunt deception and nothing could fool his superior senses…

"Take note!" Police Chief Koga announced, "this car reeks of that 'new car smell' spray they slather in cars at the airport rental, so he must have rented it…" After no response to his detailed monologue from his dutiful assistant, Koga lifted his head with a soft huff,"…Ayame?" he inquired to the empty air.

Just then a beautiful young red head rounded from the back of the SUV, her brow furrowed as she scrawled onto a note pad. "Nissan 2013 SUV, license plate reads C-43974 Tokyo motor rentals…hmm Koga I think this guy must have gotten it from the airport rental." Ayame looked up just then and was arrested by the soft glare of narrowed blue eyes.

" _Guys_ actually."

Ayame raised an eyebrow as Koga ran his hand over the upholstery. Pen to note pad she threw out a quick, "yes Sir."

"I can smell the faint scent of two humans and a youkai," Chief Koga elaborated with a smirk, but didn't reiterate just what sort of pedigree he suspected of the youkai scent. _Inu-Youkai_

He stared up into the trees that were swaying at the tops under a high breeze, without another thought he jumped up into the tallest one's branches.

"What're we doing up here?"

He turned to his right to see Ayame sitting beside him, drawing a cute little map of the area on her note pad.

Talking more to himself than to her he scrutinized the scene from above, and not seeing a second vehicles tracks exiting the empty dirt parking lot, he murmured thoughtfully, "I wonder how their getting around now…"

 **O.O**

The small pang of a jab to the forehead had woken Inuyasha to the strangely comforting sound of soft snores filling his car. His head had fallen against what felt like the steering wheel. Blearily, Inuyasha opened his eyes and rubbed a hand against his dented forehead. When his vision cleared, dusks shadows reached out and he saw that he was parked under some trees hidden off the side of the road.

Suddenly his memories came swinging back, along with worry. He shifted over quicker than human eyes could track to check the seat beside him. He felt his whole body immediately relax when his eyes fell upon the source of the soft purring that had filtered into his dreams. She was slightly tousled, but to his relief still _there_ and unconscious as she slept softly in the seat he'd handcuffed her to.

Inuyasha gave a sigh of relief and rolled his neck. He had done it, did it, it was done. Well sort of. Ultimately he had gotten through the hardest part, or so he thought. He'd never kidnapped anyone before, so he didn't really know what would be the hardest part. He was really just hoping the hardest part was behind him.

Drumming his fingers on the wheel Inuyasha tried to anticipate what her reaction would be when she woke up.

Maybe a little groggy. Probably Angry, she obviously had a temper. He'd have her bound up if she decided to cause any real problems though. Although her temper could be a problem when upon delivery. That shrill annoying scream she had was enough to make his sanity a casualty. Now he was debating 'accidentally' nocking her out again right before he got to them. The practical use of a gag seemed to slip his mind.

Even though he just wanted them to keep up their end of the bargain and didn't care about their stupid master plan, he couldn't help wondering what they could want with Kagome. It wasn't that he cared about her. It was just that she was so obviously different from Kikyo, and so much more annoying.

Luckily he wouldn't be stuck with her much longer. Thank god.

He felt a little shiver by his side and realized in her restless sleep the blanket had fallen off her shoulders. He tsked and picked it back up tucking it under her chin, stopping to gage her face for any signs of rousing. She was kind of pretty though.

He reached a hand up to rest on a rosy cheek. With the frown she had on, she suddenly looked so much more like Kikyo too.

Suddenly her gave her cheek a firm tweek. Nothing not even a flinch.

She's was still dead to the world. Which was good, he'd needed to make sure the morphine hadn't worn off.

Inuyasha pulled his hand back. Feeling a little guilty at the tiny red mark he'd left behind he moved a jet-black, stray lock away from her face. Noticing that even their hair was the same.

But was the hair and the, eh, remotely identical faces really the only reason they wanted the girl? He couldn't think of any other reasons, this Kagome girl was completely unremarkable otherwise.

Actually, he had to admit, that wasn't completely true. He drew his other hand away from her shoulder when he realized she had stopped shivering a while ago.

She had this strange, selfless sort of rage when she protected. Which was about as interesting as it was annoying. But it was something only he knew about and had actually sort of counted on in the long run. He knew she'd come within arm's reach to fight him if she thought he was trying to take her little brother. And he'd been right. Like an idiot, the girl had actually thrown herself at him, her kidnapper!

It was stupid, she was crazy, and _nothing_ like Kikyo. Kikyo had always been a little too smart, calm, collected, and hard to read. This girl was anything but. At least that was what he had seen so far.

Stretching his cramped muscles Inuyasha peered out between the trees at the empty stretch of road.

Night was falling, and he thought he could hear the distant rumble of a storm rearing its ugly head. Calculating his next move, he estimated how much time he had left before she would actually wake up. Give or take a…uh…this and that…and um not enough time, was the estimated time he realized as he looked at the dashboard clock for the first time.

He'd have to hit the road now if he wanted to barely make it to the cabin before the chloroform would completely wear off.

He suddenly decided it wouldn't be a good idea to use a second dose of chloroform on her today. It would probably kill her, and they hadn't asked for a dead Kagome Higurashi.

He turned on the engine of the old Army jeep he'd stolen earlier, set it to drive and with a sharp turn of his wheel made his way onto the road. He had been driving for quite a while when he realized he had somehow forgotten to turn on his headlights. His night vision was so good, he generally didn't need them. But if he was going to play the role of a little human, dutifully following traffic laws and blind as a bat in the dark, he'd fail without them on.

He flipped them on and hoped no one, within the police persuasion, had noticed their absence. Seconds later the wail of a siren and the glare of a police car lights reflected in his rearview mirror.

Cursing he banged a fist on the dashboard, pulled the jeep over and set it into park. It was just his luck. Even though he had a plan, he still didn't like the risk of tipping anyone off.

Moving fast, Inuyasha threw a tattered map on the dashboard, popped in the most hardcore western country music he'd ever heard, threw on a Marine core jacket and cap, and made sure blanket covered up where her hand was handcuffed to the seat.

He had just gotten around to propping some of the suit cases in the back into better view, when Inuyasha heard crunch of gravel under swaggering steps and felt the warmth of flash light search his face. He rolled his window down and bit back some of his best cop jokes. Which was hard because, as he looked at the man's face, sunglasses and donut crumb on the side of mouth and all, they just kept throwing themselves at him.

"Any reason your headlights were off?"

 _Well, certainly not because I am a hanyou kiddnapper if that's what you're asking…_ Inuyasha stopped bopping his head to the music, and saluted. "YES SIR!"

The cop raised a brow.

"I mean, NO SIR!" He brought his hand back down to the steering wheel. He attempted to look sheepish.

The cop smiled, "What regiment are you son?"

"CLASSIFIED INFORMATION SIR!"

At the loud bark, the cop had slapped his hands to his ears, "Hush son, do you want to wake your girl up?"

Inuyasha saluted again, "SHE SLEEPS LIKE A ROCK SIR!"… _especially when drugged._

"No!" The men jumped and swiveled their wide eyes to the aforementioned 'girlfriend' who had just spoken.

Inuyasha's heart was just about to beat out of his chest when she softly mumbled, "no pictures please… I just want to be treated like n-normal people," and then sighed dreamily.

As Inuyasha's life finished flashing before his eyes he dared to look back up at the policeman with a gulp. It appeared he was regarding the hanyou's captive with mild amusement rather than shock.

 _A good sign_ _I think._

"Where are you heading?" The cop had moved on, and was shining his flashlight curiously on the suitcases in the back.

And then suddenly the cop's eyes widened and Inuyasha's hand had to shoot up quick to shield his eyes from a hard, white light.

"Wait did, you say classified…" The cop asked, shooting the supposed Marine a knowing, smug look. He drew away the flash light and strung his thumbs through his belt loops. Leaning back he gave a low whistle. "Knew I could pick out the special ones when I see's em."

He started to hum along to the song playing on Inuyasha's track. "Great taste in music too, that Shania Twain?"

 **O.O**

Inuyasha watched the cop speed past, and once his tail lights were out of view, he pulled off his cap and scratched his ears. _Wow_ , girls could get out of tickets even in their sleep. He rolled the window up, shutting out the chilly mountain air. That had been a close one. He tried to shake off the rush and get back into the zone.

Inuyasha was slightly distracted from the road however when a faint throaty sound reached his ears. _Was that a moan?_ He trained a shocked ear onto the girl.

"Mmmmm yes..."

 _Woah._ He internally exalted, that was definitely moaning!

He struggled to stay focused as all sorts of images of the more inappropriate sort flooded his testosterone riddled mind. His hands tightened on the steering wheel and his eyes hooded as he strained his ears to listen intently, waiting eagerly for the juicy details to be voiced. He was forcibly slapped out of his masculine excitement by the uttering of four small words.

"I'd _love_ another brownie…" Kagome smiled dreamily in her sleep and turned away, leaving a gawking hanyou in her wake.

Flushed, he deflated a little _, Oh_ , he thought, his mind now filled with the strange but fitting image of Kagome innocently picking out a brownie from a proffered plate, and saying something like 'don't mind if I do la da dee fucking dah.'

And just when he thought things were about to get interesting. He took his eyes off the road and looked back at the girl just as some drool pooled delicately from her mouth onto the upholstery. He grimaced, a little put out, and accelerated the jeep.

 _Definitely not a dream to get excited over_.

 **O.O**

Kagome, like most girls her age, had a wild imagination. She liked to think of it as dreamingness, she was simply a dreamer. The most ordinary things became extraordinary when her dreamy thoughts took interest. As a child, the gleaming eyes of a cat behind some bushes at night, became to Kagome a dragon, guarding its forest and biding its time till everyone was asleep so it could take off and fly to the stars. Hopefully letting Kagome catch a ride on the way.

In the ocean she'd dream she'd grown a tail and swam off to live happily ever after with the dolphins. But she always felt guilty when she realized how much her mother would worry and miss her if she really did.

As she got older, her fantasies carried over into the modicums of everyday life, and she often found herself musing over daily encounters and adding some extra plot lines to them.

So naturally when Kagome heard about kidnappings, or was reminded of the guidelines to prevent kidnapping, such as 'don't talk to strangers, or enter said stranger's cars. After rolling her eyes at the clearly commonsense rules, she had always imagined what she would do if she were to be kidnapped.

In her imaginings she was always brave and strong and clever. Successfully fighting an offender off, or talking an aggressor out of a bad deed with a lashing of her quick whited tongue. In reality, the first time all she'd been able to do was run, and barely that. The second time she'd fought, hard, or so she had thought.

Of course her day dreams never showed the fear, outrage, and shame of fighting till your last breath and not doing an ounce of good. Or how a heart could beat so frantically, it was hard to form any coherent thoughts that wouldn't be drowned out in its loud beating.

Having no power and control over your own fate was terrifying, anything and probably everything could and would happen. And it did happen, and now she was only God knows how far from home.

What she never imagined, was that despite all this, there was still a thing that cut through it all to the bone, and the only name that seemed to fit it was resolve. Resolve for what, to live, to be free? She wasn't sure. All she knew what that it was like an icy stake in her gut, that seeped cool and calm into her blood stream and throughout her body so that she could function and fight despite the fear and emotions muddling her mind.

Or was that just the adrenaline?

It sort of felt like the calm before a storm. She'd often imagined that calm was the storms decision time. To rain or to snow. To rumble like a hungry beast and light up the night sky, or to pelt all things happy and good with ice rocks! She imagined a meeting called to attention, with cloud beasts calling out solemnly, "To wreak havoc or not to wreak havoc, that is the…"

The wind from the crack in the window was chill and wet on her cheek, it smelled like rain. Her eyes opened and locked onto frozen ambers that glimmered a ghostly reflection off the headlights of the car, which were eerily lighting the forest around them. She had awoken to the careful sound of a key turning quietly in the lock of her hand cuffs.

Kagome sucked in a deep breath, as the ghostly eyes widened before her. In the next second the sound of glass shattering and a curse rang out. And Kagome was running.

She hardly noticed as she ducked under some gnarled branches, the leftover glass shards falling from her hair from when she kicked out her door window and shot into the woods. She'd already shaken off the unlocked cuffs from her wrist, she had needed her hands right away to slap back the tree limbs rushing to waspishly greet her face.

She was already struggling to catch her breath, why oh why did she have to slack off in gym class? Right, because she hated organized exercise.

She prayed her adrenaline would get her far, but as she looked into the dark forest she felt despair take hold. She couldn't see anything and had absolutely no idea where she was going. She hoped her pursuer couldn't see well in the dark either…or had slacked off in one too many gym classes himself.

She may have never been kidnapped before. But there was one thing she knew, she realized as she remembered the creepy man with the daggers and the lamp shade.

She had escaped before and she could do it again.

 **O.O**

Inuyasha looked away from the dark swamp of forest Kagome had disappeared into to glare at the glass window she had shattered. Army jeeps weren't supposed to 'shatter'.

Taking a moment to close his gaping mouth he massaged his temples and heaved a longsuffering sigh. And he'd been rather fond of that particular window.

He could tell she was going to be a headache the whole journey and wanted to leave her out there. But he also knew that ' _umm, she ran away and I had a headache?'_ , would hardly be a legitimate excuse for not, eh, finishing the job.

He perked his ears to get an idea of her general location now that she'd been out of his sight for quite some time. She wasn't far, he could still hear her clumsy foot fall and the wild pant of her breath less than a mile away.

A chorus of startled small animals echoed around her poorly planned trek, basically putting a target sign around her progress. Each loud and bumbling movement practically shouted; come here all bears, wolves, and slavering youkai, I'm slow, clumsy, and ripe for the taking! I taste best in sunshine and sparkles sauce though, so good luck with that.

He chuckled mirthlessly, she would be easy to find. The jeeps door groaned with age as he swung it open and stepped onto gravel.

He huffed, as he entered a soft jog, momentarily losing himself in a mental lament over the current grief the she was giving him. Of all the stunts to pull…why couldn't she just stay kidnapped? He was actually a little impressed with her determination, but _what was her mother fucking plan_? Really, where could she possibly go with this. Was she going to make friends with a local squirrel and live out the rest of her merry days in a burrow?

He was a hanyou dammit! So half human and half; chases like no other predator, ears that can hear her exhausted panting from over a mile away, nose of a tracker, sees in the night as well as in the day and strong as hell fucking inu youkai! It didn't occur to Inuyasha that the poor frightened girl probably hadn't grasped that aspect of his nature yet, although she likely would soon.

He knew she couldn't see out there and therefore had no idea where she was going. Inuyasha figured her best alternative was going to hide behind a rock, praying he couldn't track her down, and hoping no one 'else' noticed her?

If Inuyasha didn't find her, although he wasn't going to let that happen, other forest creatures just as dangerous to a human girl would obviously take interest.

She was either a major idiot, or an incredibly brave girl running blindly into a predator stocked forest. Although he was impressed by her guts, she was clearly the former. "Keh, Stupid," he muttered as he geared into an actual run, he just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

Good thing she was always easy to find.

 **O.O Two weeks earlier O.O**

" Did you find her?"

Inuyasha's binoculars wobbled, but he easily refocused them on the raven headed girl on a shrine step, stroking the fat belly of an orange tabby. "Yeah…"

"That was fast."

Inuyasha laughed as suddenly the cat, teeth and claws, latched onto the girls arm. She jumped back with what he imagined was a yelp trying to shake the animal off. He pulled down his binoculars and gave the cell phone a funny look. "You guys _gave_ me her _address."_ He reminded the man on the other line.

He could hear an outraged sort of silence, the sound of cloth rubbing against speakers in a way that was usually followed by the speaker holding the phone against their body and assuming it muted them to the person on the line.

"Who gave the hanyou her address?!" The deep voice demanded. "Was it Mika?" The man accused darkly, and then Inuyasha the muffled sound of a woman's reply.

The man barked in response, "What do you mean I executed her last week? No, no no. I said execute Rika, not Mika! Shame, so you say it was that toadman…" there was an exasperated sort of sigh, " _yes_ I mean Jaken!" Some more muffled talking. "Whatever, just bring him and my new whip to my office by noon and maybe I won't castrate your firstborn son."

There was a repetitive whuff sort of sound as the phone was moved off of the shirt and a voice rang out clear as day, "Inuyasha? Are you still there?"

Inuyasha ran a hand through his hair, "present."

"Good, so you have a plan?"

"Of sorts," He had gotten her back into his vision, Kagome was shaking her fist at the cat and he could see that he wasn't the only one watching her as he caught sight of a small boy doubled over in laughter in the other corner of the yard. _Hnnn…_ With a scowl,she seemed to notice him too, and was soon marching over shouting something.

"It's in the making, give me two more days and she'll be mine." Inuyasha added.

"You mean mine of course." The voice patiently corrected.

"Well duh, it's not like _I_ want to keep her. But it will take more than two days, after I nab her, to get her to you. Do you realize how inconveniently far away you are?"

There was a thoughtful pause and then an eerily calm reply. "You have what resources I gave you, use them. And if you don't have her here by the end of the month, the deal is off. "

There was a click and Inuyasha was pretty sure he'd hung up. He was about to resume watching Kagome again when the cellphone started beeping repeatedly. He held it up curiously and robotic female voice declared. "minutes up, self-destruct in ten..nine…eight…"

"You have got to be kidding me!"

Bang!

The Higurashi siblings turned their heads sharply at the sound of a thunderous clap, just in time to see a flash of light fade into the day quickly turning to dusk from the top of one of the tallest buildings in the local business district. They untangled themselves from their wrestling match to stare wide eyed at each other, both silently communicating a building excitement between them.

Suddenly it was all too much to hold in, "Fire works!" they burst out simultaneously, dashing up and inside the house to go grab their mother and grandpa and drag them outside to see the impending show.

 **O.O**

She heard the light lithe sound of him running before she saw him. And then, there he was, slipping as softly into the small clearing as the moonlight over his gleaming, sliver white hair and triangle fur tipped ears. His eyes glinted and gleamed gold like a cats. Kagome gasped and glinting eyes flickered her way, as it suddenly occurred to her that he was a Youkai.

She'd seen a few here and there before. Mainly on school fieldtrips to resort or rural areas, they didn't seem to like congregating into human packed cities like Tokyo, where she lived. But her lack of hands on experience with them didn't leave her ignorant. She knew about their strength and on some, increased senses. Other than that all she knew was, you probably didn't want to get kidnapped by a bad one. In fact, her heart was beating with less and less hope for her survival as she thought about it. How could she even hope to escape, how could she overpower a demon? A creepy and possibly murderous man who frequents candy shops and has two daggers. Yeah she learned, at least with the help of a random giant dog, she was capable of escaping that but this….

Now he was sniffing the air and slowly approaching her general vicinity, Kagome's chest pounded harder with every step he took. If he decided it, she could die tonight. But not all demons were bad right? Most people thought they were, at least thought the week ones were. She was pretty sure Dai youkai were thought to be good.

Kagome's mother always told her after one of her grandfathers rants, that there would always be good and bad people, no matter what race, walk of life, or, er, species. Also a few celebrities were high caliber youkai right? So maybe just the strong ones were good, eh, it really didn't madder. Kagome realized, as he got closer and she grew more scared, this one was so very obviously bad. And would possibly be the end of her.

And suddenly Kagome was angry. Red faced, knuckle cracking, blazing eyes and soul angry! She had never felt so angry in her life. There was no feeling like it, so raw, powerful and bitter. Even though she was tiny and hiding, it made her feel strong and formidable. She had only had a taste of such anger during the attack a week earlier. It felt like power, and now that anger was a four course meal.

She wanted to snarl and growl at him from her spot in the tree hollow and then gouge those big golden eyes out the second he looked into her hiding spot.

She didn't even give him the chance, as soon as he came sniffing by the tree next to hers, she was grabbing a stake she'd made in a rush earlier out of a stick on the ground, and was lunging at his back with a savage cry. Kagome seemed to have already forgotten that he was stronger than her.

He turned at the sound and with wide eyes threw down a shoulder to dodge Kagome's attack, "What the Fuck!" he howled. He looked shocked and with the way his eyes were glued to her 'weapon', she could tell he had not expected her to be armed. But she didn't give him enough time to wonder as she emitted some sort of shriek or yell unlike any animal he'd ever heard and began stabbing at him with a furry.

He stumbled back at first, but then something in his eyes changed and he stopped. They were as hard as the metal their color represented as he pushed off the tree behind him, and faster than Kagome could see, slapped her bit of wood from her hands.

She cried out and tears sprouted from her eyes, her hand stung from where he slapped her. She turned to run and felt him reach for her wrist. His fingertips grazed her knuckles as she slipped away. "Shit!" He cursed, but she didn't look back to see his reaction. And so she didn't see the way he winced and drew his hand to his chest after he'd touched her.

"Come back here ya crazy glowing bitch!"

And then he was in front of her and she was crying with frustration and trying to dodge him. But he blocked her at every turn. She knew better than to try and hit him with her bare hands, he would only take it as an invitation to grab her arms and then she would be trapped again.

For some reason, except for when he'd slapped away her weapon, he wasn't really attacking her. He wasn't even touching her or grabbing at her, it was almost like he was avoiding it. So lucky for her, he was just using his body as a buffer to block her escape.

She thought that maybe she could work with this.

The fourth time he'd blocked her she stumbled flat onto her butt and her hands clutched at mounds of dirt to push herself back up before he could pounce in her moment of weakness. During her fall she was given a stunning view of a clear path over the youkai's shoulder and the dirt beneath her hands had given her a plan for an attack. Grabbing two fistfuls of the soft earth she stood up, flung them in his face and made a run for it.

"OW! Motherfucking…buttmunching…dumbshit…"

His curses ran like silly string behind her and she briefly felt triumphant as she made some distance and saw what looked like a street light way up ahead through some trees. The sight of the warm light in the cold of night was comforting. And even better, this course had less of those gnarly roots and branches that had gotten in her way earlier. She navigated the path with new energy and optimism fluttering to life in her chest.

And then she tripped hard on a rock.

 **O.O**

 **A/N: Oh damn those rocks, always getting in the way…of peoples feet!**

 **Please review!**


	4. 4 Wake Up!

**Disclaimer: The characters in this fanfic belong to Rumiko Takahashi, but all the dead space between Koga's ears was brought to you by me.**

 **A/N: So Anglerfish are probably the most creepy and terrifying creatures the ocean has to offer. You might recall the fishes debut on Finding Nemo, with its raiser thin and long jagged teeth and glowing bulb of light floating invitingly in front of its dead eyes. The light which attracted Dory…and almost was the end of her.**

 **Why would I bring up such a terrifyingly ugly creature? Just incase you have never heard of it and would like the opportunity to google it right now and have nightmares forever. Just kidding, the Angler fish comes up in the story with a new spin. So start your googling now if you've never heard of it so you can avoid the confusion later.**

 **Chapter 4. Wake Up!**

 **O.O**

His men, when they were first informed of the crisis, had called out panicked APB's for a black SUV with a single male driver and a woman either in the back seat or the trunk. Which at the time seemed like an appropriate assumption. An SUV around these parts of Tokyo was a sight as rare as an antelope sleeping peacefully in a lion's den, which was ironically what they called such a situation. _' We've got an antelope in a lion's den, I repeat, antelope in a lion's den'._

They didn't have much of a description of the guy, Koga immediately realized after reading the interview notes. Only children witnessed the kidnapping, and children weren't very good with details, some just seemed to make them up.

According to the kids, the suspect was apparently an enormous giant, had super 'cool' super strength, could summon dragons, had a magic red hat that changed colors with his mood, and was a very 'pretty' man.

All they knew definitively was that the suspect had long hair, but the color would change depending on the kid you asked.

So there they were, deciding to just stick with an SUV search and hoping for the best apparently.

It wasn't until hours later, with no SUV spotted or any sign of the girl, Koga's men realized they were way out of their league. They hung their dampened pride on a raised line and called their beloved police Chief in from his day, well by this time, late afternoon off. Oh what they'd interrupted…

"There was a kidnapping? And you didn't call me sooner? What do you mean you couldn't find the SUV!" Koga was throwing on his clothes and ushering the busty, blue-eyed youkai he'd been getting…acquainted with, out the door with assurances that he'd call her soon. "It's only the most obvious car ever!" He grabbed his hat and locked the door behind him. "If he's in an SUV it couldn't get past our patrols…unless." _Unless he abandoned the car._ Koga rushed out to his car and turned on the sirens, those idiots were hopeless without him.

With all Koga new now, he realized they were looking for a pro little shit. But first he needed to find out where he, or now he knew it was a they, had gotten the car and where they had abandoned it. Now he knew the car was a rental they could probably get an accurate description or some sort of record of identification from the airport. But most of all he needed to figure out what vehicle they'd switched to.

Koga studied the tree line opposite the SUV as his men searched the car for fingerprints and clues. So far he'd found the old car, but the kidnappers' new plan of escape still eluded him. They couldn't have made their escape on foot…or could they? He tried to think of the closest landmarks that would be of use to them.

There was a gasp, and his perky, red headed assistant suddenly popped into view. Obscuring his pensive perusal of the forest.

"Ummm s-s-sir," She burbled anxiously, holding a communicator up to her ear. "I'm getting a radio from the military camp half a mile away."

Koga swatted Ayame away. "Whatever it is they can wait." He assured her, wishing she would just leave him alone so he could think. Certainly the demon could carry the girl away somewhere, but how would the other human keep up? And when had that other human joined them anyway?

Together on foot they couldn't have gotten far. Maybe the youkai gave both humans a ride on his back…in that case, was it possible the other human wasn't actually an accomplice but another victim? _Serial kidnapping!_

Ayame's eyes were large and round as she gasped, "But sir," she insisted, "they are reporting—"

"Christ Ayame!" Koga snapped, waving his arms in frustration, "we have got a premeditated kidnapping on our hands, I don't have time for this!"

"—A stolen JEEP, sir! They hadn't noticed it until now because it was one of their older models."

"Hynn," Koga grunted and rubbed a foot into the dirt. After a beat he held his hand out to her. "Hand it over," he ordered and stomped away barking a sharp greeting into the device, "Chief Koga here!"

 **O.O**

The forest was quiet when Inuyasha landed beside Kagome, it appeared all little creatures had vacated the premise. Even the leaves were still and Inuyasha knew why. He listened to her breathing and her heart and found that she was nearly unconscious but her heart was still beating strong. Inuyasha leaned over her to get a better look. She still had this weird faint glow about her so he didn't touch her. She only had a few scrapes anyway. He decided she would be fine and turned his attention to the source of light at the end of the path.

Inuyasha didn't know how he hadn't noticed _it_ before, its _youki_ was big though its stench was small. Actually that was probably why he hadn't noticed it. He had been following Kagome's scent so closely, relying on his nose and nothing else. Its small scent didn't even register next to hers. And Inuyasha had never been much for demon auras. There was just no thrill in tracking them, for one thing they didn't leave a trail for him to track. They just sort of hung around their host like fog, slow, still, and deeply uninteresting. Also, most youkai worth a second glance chose to suppress their aura's in order to escape unwanted attention so, yeah, logic.

But there were other signs and Inuyasha wanted to kick himself for not noticing them. But he'd taken to the trees as soon as he _had_ noticed what she was running towards. He had to get to her before she stumbled stupidly into the trap, luckily, it looked like a little rock got her first. He snickered as he'd realized he'd just witnessed the one time being clumsy would ever be lucky. She was such a trip…pun intended.

Well it wouldn't have been a lucky fall if he hadn't been their Inuyasha thought…but then she wouldn't have been their if it weren't for him so.

Inuyasha didn't know deep forest _Angler youkai_ were common in this area, he didn't think the local forests got, eh, deep enough. He could feel its aura now, and it seemed anxious and impatient. Usually they let their prey come to them and he could tell it was still expecting Kagome to come to it, but wasn't going to wait much longer. Inuyasha didn't need a demon following them and decided to eliminate the threat before it decided to come out and see what was taking its prey so long.

Inuyasha started walking towards the light, it looked kind of like a street light. Huh, that must have been what Kagome was hoping to see. But once he stepped into the clearing he saw it for what it really was, a huge glossy, eerily glowing bulb attached to a long scaly, spine like pole. _A trap_.

Just then a huge shadow fell over Inuyasha and his eyes met one large fishy eyeball just as large needle like teeth snapped at him. It was all so fast as he dodged and then howled as one tooth grazed his shoulder tearing his shirt and leaving a gash on his arm.

Inuyasha's fangs showed as he snarled and tore his claws into the Anglers eye and ripped it out. It was squishy and moist, _ew_. Quickly, he threw the eye away and into the forest. The creature's lit bulb lurched away as it wailed in pain and gasped, "Not a human?" and then it was dark and quiet.

Its light had blinked out and Inuyasha could feel its aura slipping away as it fled into the night.

He raised a fist and called after it," that's right bitch! HANYOU" Inuyasha kicked at the dirt. "Yeah you better run!"

Angler youkai were strong but their senses were completely dull. They only looked out for easy prey, humans. Everyone knew that Anglers tasted horrible so Anglers didn't pay much attention to nearby threats, like pissed off hanyous. Instead they cleaned and made nice trails leading to themselves and put all of what little senses they had into rigging the trail with sensors for picking up a human's scent and movement.

Their blazing orb was a lure that became whatever light a poor lost human hoped it to be. But when they Anglers came across a youkai or in this case a hanyou that out matched them, they were smart and knew when to run.

When Inuyasha was sure that it was gone he looked over at his right shoulder to inspect his wound. He groaned when he saw the big tear in his shirt, _great_! The wound would heal fast enough, but his damn shirt wouldn't!

Inuyasha stomped back over to Kagome. She wasn't glowing anymore, if anything she looked harmless now. He had been a little shocked when she jumped out from behind that tree earlier, glowing all bright and pink like fluorescent bubble gum. In a strange way it brought back some memories of Kikyo he would rather stay buried, even though it was for the most part different. But what was more of a blow was the stake she'd had in her hand that she had somehow managed the time to scrounge up.

It was burning white and gave Inuyasha the creepy crawlies when it came near him. Inuyasha's instincts screamed at him to get that thing away from him. He felt a sizzle when he struck her wrist and it flew out of her hands. It made him grimace, and he flinched when she cried out. He hadn't meant to hurt her, but she'd given him no choice!

It seemed like he never had any choices anymore… and Inuyasha really wished Kagome would stop making things so difficult, it wasn't like any of this was his idea anyway! Anyway, Inuyasha wasn't sure how to go about grabbing her while she was being all glowy like that, he'd never tried with Kikyo. He just knew that his best option at the time was to avoid touching her until she 'cooled down'.

And then she'd thrown the dirt into his eyes, the sly bitch.

Inuyasha crouched low and scooped Kagome up. They better have stocked the cabin with a change of clothes or he was quitting! It was an idle, internal threat, Inuyasha knew quitting was never an option.

 **O.O**

Kagome knew that she must have hit her head on something hard, because the world would not stop moving around her.

Her limbs were heavy and she couldn't move an inch to steady herself, even when she felt the presence of someone standing above her

Something soft fell on Kagome's face and she managed to crack an eye a sliver open. All she could see was vibrant silver grazing her cheek. _Hmmph_ , it was him, she'd been caught again.

Kagome was waiting for him to drag her away when she felt the hair fall away from her cheek and she heard the sound of his steps grow farther and farther away. She blacked out feeling relieved and yet vulnerable. Had he abandoned her to the wiles of the forest while she was no longer able to defend herself? She wasn't certain if she was better off.

Later on she thought she heard a raging howl, her eye lids fluttered, but she couldn't muster enough energy to feel scared. Soon, gentle hands were lifting her up, and wind was whooshing over her ears and through her hair. She wondered if maybe she was flying.

 **O.O**

"Oi! Wake up!" something cold and sopping wet smacked onto Kagome's cheek. She opened her eyes and came face to face with her kidnapper. He was not the best sight to wake up to.

She shot him a penetrating glare.

Which either he was too dense to notice or was astutely ignoring.

He leaned back and rubbed his eyes. "Sheesh, it's about time you woke up."

Grateful for the distance and wondering how long she'd been out, Kagome lifted her hands to touch her wet cheek and found that they were bound by ropes. She grimaced, but still continued her hands in their trajectory to explore her cheek. There wet wash cloth was plastered to the side of her face.

Not one for pleasantries, especially not with homicidal maniacs, Kagome got straight to business. "What do you want?"

She was lying on a small, thin white cot in the middle of a shabby little one roomed cabin. The windows were boarded up, so Kagome wasn't sure what time of day it was, and her head and what seemed like her whole body was throbbing.

He ignored her question in favor of stretching languorously with a yawn. Giving her a full view of sharp canines. An attempt to intimidate or evade the truth?

Kagome wasn't sure, but she suddenly decided she wouldn't let the truth wait. She was tired, in pain, and out of ideas. She wanted answers. And he was getting far too comfortable for her liking.

"Hey!" Kagome barked, so loud she could hear an echo from the bathroom.

His mouth snapped shut mid yawn in surprise and his arms flew back down to his sides.

He favored her with a disturbed glare. "What's eating you now?"

Kagome suddenly swiped the wet cloth off her face and sat up. "You have got to be kidding me! I have been Kidnapped! Chased! Beaten! Bound! And God knows what comes next."

Kagome ignored the way he had suddenly started looking at her, like her head was going to pop at any second. "And you have the gall, to ask what is eating me. Like I asked to be here, like I asked for this, like I had any say—"

Suddenly he threw his hands up. "Okay, shee'sh, no need to have a melt-down."

"No need to have a MELTDOWN!" Kagome shrieked. She threw herself up onto her knees and then heard something pop.

It wasn't her head.

"OW!"

It was her ankle.

Suddenly she was pushed back off of it and was on her back again.

"Jeez! Just stop your screeching."

Kagome did stop. But only for a moment to look back and forth from him to the swollen red ankle she had managed to stick out in the air in her fit.

He was holding one hand protectively over his fury tipped ears, the other he had used to push her back off of her ankle.

He shot her a horrified look as he watched a scary scary smile slowly spread over Kagome's face as she suddenly realized his major weakness.

Kagome began to gleefully scream at the top of her lungs.

"Oh MY GOD!" Inuyasha scrambled to re-clamp his hands over his ears. His heart rate picked up and for once he had no idea what to do next. That scream…It was the most awful…scary…hanyou's couldn't go deaf could they?

He didn't know for sure…but he knew he couldn't take it much longer. Suddenly feeling brave he chanced taking his hands of his ears and then lunged at Kagome. Landing half on her and half beside her he slammed his hands over her mouth.

"Demon woman, I will not hesitate to gag you if you don't stop!"

She only blinked at him with wide eyes.

Certain she understood, Inuyasha risked life and limb and slowly began to draw his hand back.

"Ah!"

Quickly he clamped them back down.

"What? Did you burst your eardrums with all that screeching? Or are you just stupid!"

Inuyasha watched with satisfaction as her eyebrows dipped angrily. She could hear him alright.

He locked eyes with her. The anger in them didn't escape him. They also didn't look right, one pupil was definitely much larger than the other. She had a concussion…he needed her to rest, but not sleep. He was pretty sure sleeping was bad for concussions. He wasn't sure though. He'd never had one.

"Okay, listen. I promise I'm not going to hurt you. So please stop screaming."

Her flat look reminded him that she had no reason to trust him and wasn't planning on doing it anytime soon.

"Look, you have a concussion. As well as a sprained ankle. You need to calm down and rest…but definitely not fall asleep I think. And all your screaming is doing is pissing me off so if you could just…" It just dawned on Inuyasha that that might have been her point.

"I really will gag you and it won't be comfortable. So you have a choice, no gag and comfort."

She rolled her eyes.

"Okay, okay, look I really don't want to gag you, it's weird. But I also don't need you ripping my ears a new one."

Oh god, he'd just given her another idea hadn't he, ripping his ears…

"Do you understand me? Do you promise not to scream if I let go?"

She nodded her head. Which was a good sign. Until he realized he couldn't be sure if it was to answer both questions or just one of them. Asking two questions at the same time probably wasn't one of his best ideas.

When Kagome's head nodding movement began to cause her to wriggle slightly against him Inuyasha realized something very important.

She may have been nodding her head yes…but Inuyasha was pretty sure she must have noticed by now that his body was rather intimately restraining hers. There was probably very little chance she wouldn't bite his head off when he let go.

Kagome had definitely realized their predicament, much earlier than Inuyasha of course. Her sense of doom and dread had been building and was about to reach its breaking point the closer he moved.

Inuyasha leaned forward a little bit. "Listen if you could just."

 _This is it, oh God. It's finally happening, the torture, the infliction of his perverted desires, maybe even death!_ Kagome thought.

Inuyasha paused, suddenly as his vision started getting blurry, wait no, it was her vision. He was still staring into her eyes and they had filled with water. Then one tear fell. She was crying.

"Oi! Why are you crying, don't cry!"

She didn't listen to him. At all. She only cried harder. He looked away, not sure what to do and deeply uncomfortable.

He pulled one of his hands back when he felt something cold and wet dribble onto it. On quick inspection he realized it was snot.

"Ew."

The space his hand left behind allowed him to hear and feel her sob harder.

"Just let me go." Kagome demanded softly, able to speak now that a hand was missing.

At least she wasn't screaming anymore…but he wasn't sure crying was that much better. Infact, it was definitely worse. So much worse. He wondered if she'd go back to screaming if he asked her…nicely.

"Please." His ears twitched at the small word and he remembered suddenly what she was asking.

Inuyasha gulped and looked back at her. It was a mistake. Her watery eyes and tear stained cheeks made him feel things he didn't want to feel, like guilt.

"I..can't" he admitted with regret.

Kagome sniffled, loudly. There was a lot of snot.

"Sure you can, you can stop here. Redeem yourself. You don't have to do this." She urged him and he wanted to listen but he knew he couldn't. He shook his head.

"Please I am too young to die and I am telling you no, I don't want to…" she trailed off and he wondered what she was trying to say. He wasn't going to kill her, he knew that much. And he didn't think they would kill her. But we all die someday, so he couldn't very well tell her she wouldn't die. Well, she had to know that so he wondered what she was saying she didn't she want to do….

He followed the path of her eyes as they looked down at their twined bodies "Ew, okay hell no." Inuyasha immediately lifted himself off and backed away to the edge of the bed. "Ain't none of that shit EVER gonna happen here!" He started gagging dramatically in his little corner of the bed.

Kagome wiped her tears and sat up, feeling immediate relief and at the same time strangely offended that he was gagging at the mere idea of…relations, as her mother like to call it, with her.

Well, Kagome wasn't going to just sit there and wonder what was going to happen next. No she was going to _pace_ and wonder what was going to happen next.

She jumped to her feet, and immediately regretted it as pain laced up her leg. She collapsed and he caught her faster than she could see and set her back on the bed.

"Jeez your stupid, did you really just forget that your ankle is—"

"Sprained! I know, just give it a rest, I have a concussion."

She suddenly leaned away as he reached a hand up to touch the side of her head where she had been slapped by a wet washcloth.

"Yeah, that rock really left its mark…" he commented intelligently. He was frowned at the point where his hand touched the side of her head.

Even though Kagome couldn't really feel him touch her head, because he had put some sort of patch on it earlier, she slapped his hand away. Instantly irritated, it was all his fault and she didn't appreciate his touch now and never would. "Yeah, no thanks to the idiot youkai next to me anyway."

"Half actually" he muttered and then reached for her injured leg.

Kagome reeled, really having had enough of him touching her. She tried to move away, but he was faster than her and caught her leg easily. "Git. Your. Filthy. Hands. Off. Of. Me!" She ground out, close to a growl.

His golden eyes flashed indignantly, but his hand drew back so fast, Kagome's leg clattered onto the bed.

"You'd rather lie there in pain than receive medical attention for your flimsy wounds from a hanyou? Idiot! Why don't you fall asleep through that concussion too, then it won't matter if my 'filthy' hanyou hands touch you because _you'll be a dead BITCH_!"

Kagome stared at him. Well jeez, talk about touchy and temperamental. She didn't need to sit here and take this…except, she looked around the shabby room and at the deadbolted door with longing, she did.

Some things weren't adding up, and Kagome felt it was time to re-assess the situation. He was clearly hurt that she'd called his hands 'filthy', and it seemed that he was under the notion she felt this way because he was part youkai. Really this hadn't even occurred to Kagome, but it seemed that he had relatively normal feelings and pride, and somehow she'd hurt both. But she wasn't anti youkai or anything, or in his case anti hanyou, she was anti _kid freaking napper putting his hands on me_!

"Well look whose jumping to conclusions! Not everything revolves around you and your stupid parentage! I could care less!" Kagome shamed him.

"Oh Yeah?!"

"Yeah!" she threw her hands up in the air. "Did you really forget why I am here, do you really think I want you touching me? I don't care what your hands are made of, I don't want them coming anywhere near me because they are yours. Not because of your stupid, probably illegitimate heritage!"

Kagome wasn't racist, or, er, species-ist…spiciest. But she was intrigued to suddenly know that he was part human.

Kagome roamed her eyes over his face, although now she could clearly see the youkai in his sharp features, he didn't have a particularly frightening or cruel face. She dropped her eyes to his shoulder and chest where she soon found that he had a big gash on his arm… _when did that happen?_

Kagome's brow furrowed in confusion, she tried to think back to their fight in the forest, had she done that? Maybe when she had first jumped out at him she'd gotten a lucky strike…she would have thought she'd have noticed making _that_ monstrosity of a gash though. Kagome glanced back up at his face. He appeared to be uncomfortable under her scrutiny, which delighted her.

He huffed when their eyes met, taking her silence for incomprehension, "Would you just let me wrap it so I can at least get it out of sight…It's so ugly."

Kagome glared at him, but conceded. She wasn't very flexible, and it did need to be wrapped. She would just have to stomach it. Just like everything else her life had suddenly turned into.

He didn't seem to want to cause her any immediate harm, at least not now that she wasn't actively running away. But she was surprised he would bother caring about such an insignificant injury, especially when she had taken more than a bite out of his arm. Now that gash _was_ a real injury. It might have even trumped her concussion. It was kind of nasty looking.

"I suppose I can stomach it."

She expected some sort of retort, but instead she was blinking in mute surprise, as he quickly grabbed her leg, lugged it onto his lap and began wrapping it in some sort of gauze. She would have kicked him in the face with that leg, if her ankle hadn't been hurting so badly. Too bad, she'd just have to do it the next time she had the opportunity. She really hated him.

"What do you want?" Kagome asked him again once she'd regained some composure, and her ankle was starting throb a little less due to his ministrations. He too had seemed to relax strangely as he worked on her ankle.

"For you to shut up. And a triple espresso, I'm totally knackered." Apparently he hadn't relaxed enough to stop having the most obnoxious personality in the world though.

"No, with me." Kagome clarified, hoping he was just avoiding her question, rather than having a skull as thick as it looked.

His thoughtful pause and then response gave her no real answers. " _I_ don't want anything from _you_ ," he huffed and started finishing up his nots.

Kagome gave him a flat look. "Ah, I see. So then there'd be no problem if I just made my way out that door then?" Kagome moved to stand up but he shot out a hand and pushed her back down, she fell back onto the bed with a soft grunt.

"You're just a means to an end. Sit down; you wouldn't get very far…" He eyed her ankle, and a heated blush rose over her cheeks.

Wow, now he decided to get all poetic and vague, he should have just stuck to being dense and straight forward. It was way more…appealing. Also it was all _His fault, his fault, his fault!_

Kagome dragged her knees to her chest, "yeah, no thanks to someone." She caught his visual inspection of her ankle with a sharp glare.

But some pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit into place. He wasn't about to assault her physically…or sexually. And he wasn't planning to kill her. There was only one other explanation.

"What do they want with me?"

He scratched his nose. "I'm not sure. They said that—Hey!"

Kagome grinned wide at his sudden scowl, like the cat who caught the mouse.

So he _was_ the little go between she thought he was. Just hired help and small fry this one. Nothing in it for him but money. She could work with that.

"So, you wanna tell me more about the people paying you to kidnap me?"

His eyes narrowed, "Are you a witch or something, how did you—"

"Yes!" Kagome cried, "and if you don't let me go now, I'm gonna put a hex on you!"

Kagome made her eyes spooky big and wiggled her fingers eerily.

Inuyasha snorted. " Oh no, I guess I should have just saved myself and left you to the jaws of that hella ugly angler demon."

"Pardon?" Kagome immediately stopped making witch like "ooheeehoo" sounds and gave him her full attention. "Ugly demon do what now?"

Her captor gulped and made a show of crossing his arms and turning away. "Nothing. Just a stupid run in you weren't quite conscious for."

Kagome reached her bound hands out to the bloody gash on his arm, "is that how you got this?" He flinched away before she could touch him and her hands fell to her lap. The anti-touch feelings were mutual. "I thought maybe I did that…"

She heard him snort at the idea. But Kagome was starting to regain some fuzzy memories from her time spent semi-conscious and didn't really care.

She did remember tripping and getting knocked out, but she also remembered other things. Things that felt almost like a dream. Footsteps by her, something soft against her cheek. Silence for a little while and then a strange sort of pained howl. All ending in warm arms and wind in her ears. Then nothing until she had woken up in this hell hole.

It…made sense, she put the pieces together easily. When he left her he'd fought something and that pained howl Kagome had heard was his own. She wasn't sure what to make of his actions, protecting his paycheck she supposed. Was it really enough money to risk his life like that though she wondered.

Kagome could only hypothesize, as she knew so little. But what she did know is that when she looked away from his wound and met his golden eyes she felt like she knew one thing to be true. _His eyes are honest._ And it was too soon to give up hope.

With a determined look Kagome held her bound wrists up to him. "Set my hands free."

He looked at her like she was crazy, "yeah right, do you think I'm stupid?"

Kagome wanted to say yes, but only out of her burning desire to provoke him. But, he'd managed to sequester her successfully for this long, so she knew his mental capacity wasn't completely hopeless, and that it was best to tread lightly with him. " It's going to be impossible to treat and wrap that with one arm." Kagome pointed out.

"Keh, I'll manage."

"I can't run away, the windows are boarded up, you've triple bolted the door and I don't know where the key is…"

He smirked and waved a hand in the air. "There are no keys." He revealed.

Kagome gave his stubby fingers a flat look. "Okay, so I'm just imagining the locks?"

"What? No." He frowned. When he chanced a glance at his raised hand his eyebrows jumped. "Oh, hold on."

He reached his other hand up and pulled a ring off, there was a slight glimmer and then she could see that his hands now had long deadly looking claws. It was a neat trick.

"Oh." Was all Kagome said, as he smirked and gave his fingers a wiggle. "So clever." She added and blew a huff at some stray hairs that had started falling into her eyes.

She couldn't believe the nerve he had expecting her to be impressed. The claws would make any normal person feel scared, he should have known that. Kagome sure did. But strangely enough they didn't frighten her. She mostly felt disconcerted. She remembered seeing his claws when they fought in the woods and had completely forgotten about it until then. Kagome wondered why he hadn't bothered to hide them then…and why he would expect her to suddenly be surprised by them now.

"So what are you afraid of then?" Kagome cracked her knuckles and challenged," are you scared I'll take you down when my hands are free?"

For a moment he looked like he wanted to laugh at the mere suggestion, but his face was instead overcome by a scowl. "No!"

Kagome guessed he didn't like her insinuation that he was either weaker than or afraid of her. She was about to badger him further, "then what—" when she was interrupted by a claw arcing through the air. She jumped as he set her hands free, ropes dropping from her wrists and landing with soft pats onto the bed. She watched with bemusement as he shoved a roll of gauze and sanitation wipes into her hands without another word.

 **O.O**

 _ **Quite a While Before the Kidnapping.**_

Kagome glanced away from the cash she'd been gaping at cupped in her wide spread hands, and looked incredulously at her mother, "What, are we throwing a feast?" she inquired with mild surprise.

Her mother chuckled, "You've been such a wonderful help this summer, half of that is for you to treat yourself. But… Grandpa did mention wanting to celebrate the departure of that ominous cloud he saw hovering last weakened, I'm sure he'd be delighted by the suggestion of a feast instead!"

"Ack-I-But" Kagome stammered, "that was just an ash cloud from the bonfire!" She abruptly confessed with a huff.

Mrs. Higurashi raised an eyebrow at this revealing information. She had no recollection of okaying _any_ bonfire while she was out on business last weekend. She wasn't even aware they had a fire pit… _the children did have enough sense to use a fire pit right?_

 _Uh, Oops!_ Kagome laughed nervously, quickly realizing her mistake, "Umm, I mean, no- no need," She assured her mother, clutching the wad of cash possessively to her chest, "I'm sure Grandpa would prefer I got a new dress." She snuck quick peak at the cash "…or two."

Her mother crossed her arms, and stared in silent disdain after her daughter, as Kagome sheepishly shuffled backwards, making her escape out the back door with a jaunty little wave goodbye.

Shaking her head, Mrs. Higurashi gave an exasperated sigh and moved to the open window, "Don't forget the groceries too Kagome!" She called after her.

Her reminder was returned by an already distant, "I won't, promise!" and the patter of quick feet on asphalt echoing down the street.

"Are you running?"

"No!"

…

SQUISH

Inuyasha lifted the fiftieth bug he'd trapped under his thumb, and with a small ping flicked it off into the distance. Ugh, he was so tired of waiting and watching, waiting and watching, waiting and… it was so boring!

No one, as of yet, had even bothered venturing out of the Higurashi shrine today unless he counted the old man that had risen up before the sun and had been puttering about since. Said old man was currently shaking his broom contemptuously at two crows in a tree with one hand, and throwing holy sutras righteously at them with the other.

Inuyasha jumped to his feet as Kagome suddenly stumbled out the door, fresh as a daisy, stuffing something into her purse as she ran down the busy street. She yelled something over her shoulder and then abruptly slowed to a crawling jog.

Great, now she was on the move, Inuyasha realized it would be much easier to watch her without looking suspicious. He began hopping in zigzags down the cast iron and brick tower he'd been staking out on, balancing on the odd brick sticking out here and there.

Leaping onto a tiled rooftop and rolling to the edge, he braced his feet onto iron spike trim to stop his momentum. His, loose, temporarily dyed black hair lifted up and splayed inky black against clear blue sky on a breeze. His golden eyes peered over the edge and found that Kagome was quickly making her way towards his choice rooftop of the day, and would soon pass the corner it sat on as she headed towards Main Street.

He shoved off the roof with his hands and landed onto a twelve foot iron fence spike, where he balanced on one foot, hidden by a curtain of oak trees lining the fence. As soon as she walked by him he leapt off and summersaulted with a grace that boasted of his mixed lineage, and landed immaculately onto something small and soft…A cat yowled.

Inuyasha jumped, fleeing off of its tail and into a tree, " _shhhh_ it!" He muttered in a spooked half whisper, and watched his pride die a sobbing death as he heard the girl he was supposed to be inconspicuously stalking, speed back around the corner at the loud noise.

Attempting to rescue the savagely abused cat she'd heard yowl. Kagome poked her head around the corner, her pretty face open and concerned. "Hello?" She called, her eyes scanning the scantly populated street. Of which he had wisely chosen to exit the roof tops from for that exact reason. "Umm…Cat police here, any cat napping…or, er, murdering going on?"

Inuyasha's heart beat went into overdrive as a shocked look crossed her face and she suddenly began prancing over to his hiding spot in the tree. "Hey! Were you following me?" She exclaimed.

 _Crap crap crap!_ His hackles rose as she neared the base of his tree, and he wondered how he would explain his situation in it…and her accusation away. It would be their first moment of contact and he was unprepared but, he cracked his knuckles, he could handle this.

She was getting closer. Crap no, he wasn't ready to do it. He needed more time, he…

"Buyo! I can't believe you followed me all the way from the shrine!"

Inuyasha was then rather dumbfounded when Kagome made it to the base of his tree, began cooing at the cat he realized was still there and mewling softly at her.

 _Ah, she must be talking to the house cat,_ Inuyasha realized, tapping a claw impatiently on a tree branch, eager to be on his way now that the perceived threat to his anonymity had been dissolved.

"You poor thing, what happened to your tail?" Kagome asked, her voice saturated with heartfelt concern. The cat's reply was to give another yowl and invitingly flop onto its side, giving her access to his belly.

Realizing no great harm was done to the pet Kagome giggled at his gesture, "not now, it's time to shooooop till I droooop!" She confided in a playful singsong, waving a hand at him, "now shoo, go on home!" Kagome commanded the feline, turned back towards her previous route of choice and promptly tisked.

"Not my shoe laces again," Kagome mused to herself.

Inuyasha landed silently behind her as she bent over her shoes, having astutely realized that the sparse amount of witnesses on the close to empty street gave him a perfect opportunity to get his job done a whole hell of a lot faster. So what if he wasn't prepared, maybe if he was quicker it would be easier.

Inuyasha was just reaching for her when he was shoved rudely aside by a vigorous old woman barreling past him. The old woman threw out a gruff apology amounting to, "Move it sonny boy, I'm late for bingo!"

Sputtering, irritated, and shocked Inuyasha shook his fist at the old woman who was already trampling over another innocent bystander further down the street, "crazy old bat!"

But his temper quickly morphed into a grumbling, deep ire as he found that his intended target, Kagome, was already running gaily off onto the much busier main street, completely oblivious of her near run in with a dark fate.

 **O.O**

He was surprisingly quiet as she cleaned his arm, and soon Kagome fell into her own meditative silence. By the time she had finished bandaging her work she had come to a few conclusions.

He didn't seem to hold too much animosity towards her, besides annoyance. And as a paid mercenary, money was an influencing factor in his decisions.

Kagome didn't know for sure, actually, that money was the reason he was doing this. In some twisted sense she hoped it was for something more meaningful than just money. Then maybe forgiveness could be an option… _no probably not…_

But there was hope in the fact that he wasn't kidnapping her on his own accord. It meant he probably had no ties, no loyalties, and so he was swayable. A dandelion caught in a wind and easily pulled into an updraft, her updraft. After all, he couldn't know much about her. For all he knew, she was super rich and affluent! Kagome wasn't, but lies were so not something she worried about anymore at this small junction in her life.

Kagome set his arm down once she finished and leaned forward to catch his attention. "you know, I have like A LOT to offer."

Golden eyes slanted her way, "That so."

Kagome pulled at her collar and smiled. "Uh, yeah."

The cot shifted with a creak as he suddenly moved closer to her. His shadow fell over her and she was arrested by heavy lidded, molten amber eyes. He was so close their knees were touching and she could feel his warm breath mist on her cool cheek, "doesn't seem like that much to me…but." He cocked his head curiously to the side.

Kagome gulped, immediately uncomfortable and confused by the sudden proximity. " Umm I suppose it depends on how much you expect." She chided, suddenly regaining some confidence as she remembered her purpose, "…but it might be enough for my freedom?" Kagome insisted looking up at him and tentatively touching his nearby shoulder in a way she hoped conveyed earnest honesty.

He growled softly and leaned impossibly closer at her touch, "well if you're offering." He said with an inviting rumble and a dangerous, white fanged smile that could either instill a heartthrob flush or enough fear to chill to the bone.

Either way Kagome's fluttering heart and racing pulse was an accurate response. Her chest tightened and her pulse raced away screaming DANGER even though her logic was rather confused by the mixed signals. He slipped one arm around her waist and the other at her shoulder and began to gently push her back.

Suddenly realizing he was just about to start something awful, she yelped and pushed him away and slipped out from under him. The force sent her tumbling off of the bed, landing with a solid thwack onto her butt. Her heart squeezed painfully, she wondered for a brief moment if this was what a panic attack felt like

"Wha-what are you doing?" Kagome cried, shaken by the sudden, unwarranted advance.

"Taking your offer." He deadpanned, his eyes lingering on hers. He appeared completely unaffected by her little acrobatic display. Which made Kagome even more worried, he seemed like the type that would laugh at her expense.

"And what kind of offer are you implying I'm making?" Kagome asked with red cheeks.

His smile was now hard, "the intimate kind. Not that I was all that tempted."

To say the least Kagome was horrified, "I-I would never go so far, and if you weren't tempted then why did you—" She was cut by the look on his face, it sent a chill through her.

His mouth smirked but his eyes were still heavy, "I just needed to show you that you don't have the guts to go through with things like that. So don't go around smiling all coyly, offering favors, and giving _dangerous_ men the wrong idea. It's just not for you Kagome. Pulling that shit won't work in your favor at all, ever."

"I didn't do anything of the sort!" Kagome gasped, dismay finally kicking through. She was outraged by his baseless assumption and angered by the nervous feeling his darkening tone gave her. It was the first time she felt kind of scared of him since she'd woken up in the cabin, and she didn't like it. She hated fear. And she didn't know why, maybe her scrap with him in the woods had begun to make her feel more powerful or something, but she had begun to fear him, well, a lot less.

Suddenly he looked like he wanted to shake her, "Seriously don't even think about trying that crap with them unless you expect them to take you seriously!" He warned her.

"I wasn't offering…THAT, ew!" Kagome exclaimed wanting to smack him, but with the way he was talking she was beginning to wonder with dread just what kind of people he was taking her to.

"Well then what was all of that," he dug his hands into his shirt and looked down at her through his lashes, and affected a nazaly girl voice. "Wooh, aaaah, I have sooo much to offer, shit about?"

Kagome felt herself suddenly wake up from her inner horrors and snapped back. "I meant money you asshole, and I do _not_ sound like that." She defended and sat up on her knees, wincing as her ankle bent under her. "I was going to try and buy you over!" She confessed, realizing she clearly just wasn't cut out for deception. "Aren't you even tempted?" Kagome asked hopefully.

"Nope" At her blank look he declared, " _you_ don't have enough to buy me princess!"

"You don't know that!" Kagome sniffed, glaring daggers at him. She felt a little deflated by the immediate rejection as plan 'buy the guttersnipe' was thrown out the window. Kagome was suddenly surprised though when he puffed his chest and retorted.

"Actually, I know for a fact that your shrine only makes enough to sustain itself and your family."

Kagome gasped, "How…have you been stalking me?!"

He fussed at a trailing end of his newly bandaged arm and contrived to look innocent.

"So why haven't you done it yet?" Kagome asked with a glare.

"Done what?"

"Taken me to them, why are we still here?"

"Well eh, it's dark," he stuck his nose up and gave the air a quick sniff "and the storms almost here." He smirked, "Why, you got somewhere to be?"

Jerk.

Kagome was trying to pull herself up onto the bed, so she could strangle him with her bare hands when the sound of loud and very close thunder made her freeze.

The man snickered at her unease, the answering glare Kagome shot him could break ice.

Suddenly the roof was loud with the sound of pelting rain.

"It's just a little rain." He said with a yawn, kicking his feet up onto her place on the bed and laying back casually, restfully. Kagome couldn't tell if he was attempting to be comforting or was just mocking her again.

"That sounded very close." Kagome warned, as she pulled herself to her feet and tested her weight on the shabbily, but surprisingly effective brace he'd made her. She snuck a peek at its maker, his eyes were closed but she knew he couldn't possibly be asleep yet. Or at all, he had by experience proven to be the kind of manic type that didn't sleep, only pretended to in an attempt to portend normalcy or irritate her.

She turned around, "I wish I could see out those boarded windows so I could count after the lightning and really tell." She said and then began hobbling towards the bathroom.

One golden eye peeked open, "where do you think you're going?"

"My bladders about to burst." Kagome threw over her shoulder as she staggered away.

Kagome saw him make a disgusted face and she rolled her eyes. "I'm assuming that that little door, the one with no handle is the bathroom. Or am I not allowed to relieve myself _Master_?"

His eye shut and nodded his ascent with a smirk, as though pleased to be called master, "proceed as planned."

Kagome snorted, yanked open the door and turned on the light. After finishing her business she turned to the sink and splashed her face with water. Thunder shook the timbers above her, and she braced her hands on the sink trying to remain calm. She looked up and laughed as her eyes met peeling beige wall paper, it was just like him to have set her up in a man cave where the bathroom had no mirror. Wouldn't like her making weapons out of mirror glass behind his back now would he.

When the thunder left, the patter of sheets of rain calmed her and she lifted her hands to run them through her usually silky, ebony hair to begin her ministrations of pulling twigs and leaves out.

Kagome didn't know why she bothered; she didn't care what she looked like in front of him, or really soon, them. Perhaps it was for herself, she wanted to see herself at her best even during one of the worst times of her life.

She scowled at the empty wall, or rather, imagine herself at her best. Rather than as a pathetic…Kagome ended her thought there as another rumble shook the house. Suddenly she felt the hairs on the back of her neck prick up one by one. After a moment of the air seeming to stand still a boom that wasn't the sound of thunder rocked the house.

Kagome yelped and flung her door open to see him sitting rigidly on the bed facing towards her with eyes so wide she could almost see her own reflection in them. His hands were fisted in his hair, held tight over his ears.

Her own rang from the sound.

"The Jeep!" He shouted, and suddenly he was up and running for the door.

"No! Wait!" Kagome found herself calling without thinking, and he froze in response. Warning words pouring from her mouth before she could stop them, "if it was lightning you could get electrocuted." _You idiot! As soon as he opened that door you could have found freedom._ Why did she care? She didn't, the warning was just an automatic response. _Please stranger, go outside and get struck by lightning so I can return home in peace._ Kagome immediately regretted the thought after it came, she was over washed with instant shame. _I believe in life_ she reminded herself.

When he turned around to face her, his eyes appeared almost kind in an uncertain kind of way. It confused her. "You're right." he said. And suddenly he was in front of her, his grim but handsome face so close as he towered over her. Thunder filled the room again, as loud and near as the last one, this time when lightning struck the sound of metal colliding and skewering itself from the inside added to the all-consuming sound.

Kagome noticed him flinch, but it wasn't the sound of thunder, but the feel of his hands landing on her shoulders that caused her to jump this time.

He began to push her backwards, steering her towards the bed. "And you would find a way to escape while I'm out there." He added. But it sounded more like a probing question than a statement, like he wasn't sure that was the reason and was bothered by it.

Curious about this response Kagome looked up, and found his eyes had turned hard again, but not in anger, more in a sort of searching confusion. He pushed her down and let go, turning away and walking to a corner of the room that gave him a good vantage point over her and the exit. He sat stiff and cross legged as a Buddha but with none of the serene harmony, even as he closed his eyes.

After a little while of staring hard at his face, trying to find something there, anything really that could give her some point of understanding him, he finally muttered. "You should get some sleep, the dilation is gone, you're out of the concussion zone."

Kagome huffed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes, not sure if she believed him. "Yeah, you'd like that wouldn't you." Even though he acted completely uninterested in her she couldn't bring herself to trust him alone with her unconscious body, also the lightning storm was leaving her a little wired. Thunder sounded again and she jumped a little. "Hmmm, yeah no."

He hummed looking glassy eyed at her, he looked kind of tired too. It suddenly occurred to Kagome that maybe if they slept at the same time, she wouldn't feel so vulnerable. After all what could he do to her while he was asleep?

"I'll sleep if you sleep first." Kagome challenged, heart beating hopefully for a positive response all the while knowing he was very likely to protest. But she was so tired, it felt like her limbs were being pulled down by lead waits, she hoped he wouldn't. She yearned for the comfort of her cotton pajamas and bouncy mattress.

"I don't need sleep." He declared, comically raising his brows to unnaturally widen his failing eye lids.

And despite being so tired, Kagome somehow found the energy to laugh. Because it was so obvious that he did. The arrogant jerk looked tired enough to collapse and embrace the cold concrete with sleep.

His eyes narrowed at the sound of her hysterical laughter, "What?"

"You've never done this before have you." Kagome accused him with a raised brow, and not being able to help it, broke into another peal of laughter. When he looked at her with something banking surprise and denial she felt briefly triumphant, and added with pursed lips. "Well you must be because you're forgetting one very important precaution…" _Sleepiness makes you weak, so if I'm getting all the sleep…_

"And what makes you an expert, you get kidnapped often?"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "This would be my first."

"Then what do you know?"

She had lots of ideas. Kagome opened her mouth to give a snarky reply, but shut it realizing her ideas could be her advantage if he didn't know about them. "Nothing" she quipped closing her eyes and turning her head away.

But Kagome couldn't sleep. She looked back at him only to find that he had closed his eyes too. His dark lashes fanned his cheek and his brow was pinched. He definitely wasn't sleeping, so why did he bother to close his eyes? He was probably tired of looking at her Kagome decided.

After a while of watching him Kagome blushed, realizing he could feel her staring. And then with a stab of annoyance she wondered why she should bother being embarrassed by that. He was the one that took away her privacy, so why should he have a right to much. But Kagome suddenly felt herself getting very tired, even though the lights were still on and she was in the presence of a dangerous predator.

 **O.O**

 **A/N: Okay, I just cannot tell. Is this a cliffhanger or no? Just doesn't feel cliff-hangy to me, which is disappointing because I just love to leave ya'll hanging.**

 **Please Review!**


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